* Crossposted from: FREEDOM'S_VOICE
Originally from John Taylor 
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This is the lead editorial in the current issue of Brad Alpert's Western
Missouri Shooting Association's newsletter, "The Bullet". It is fairly 
ypical
of the reaction of probably more than 50% of the Republican-oriented gun 
rights
activists I know 'personally'. Libertarian activists, take note! There's Dole 
in
them thar hills!
-jct
The Official Disparager of the TurnerOlympics
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DOLE
The 1996 presidential election was Bob Dole's to lose and he just did.  In an
instant replay of George Bush's throwing the 1992 race by going out of his 
ay
to antagonize his natural constituency - gunowners (along with everyone who
believed his "no new taxes" pledge) - Dole first broke his 1995 promise to 
bring
the AWB repeal to a vote on the floor of the Senate and then - unbelievably -
answered Clinton's challenge by saying, two weeks ago, that as President he
would veto such a repeal.
You recall that after George Bush banned the importation of 
military-lookalikes,
then-Chairman of the Republican National Committee Lee Atwater said 
gunowners
have nowhere else to go". His candidate then proceeded to lose NRA's 
endorsement
and then the election by a paltry 5,000,000 votes.
I will admit that I was one of the last holdouts who was prepared to "hold 
is
nose and vote for Dole" but, as I wrote on the Republican National Committee
website (www.rnc.org/guest), I will not vote for an avowed enemy of my Second
Amendment rights.  In his incomprehensible drive to become functionally
identical with Bill Clinton, Dole has sealed the coffin on his election 
ffort
and we will have to endure as much more of a Clinton presidency as Kenneth 
Starr
decides we do, pending his painstaking and inexorable pursuit of felony 
charges
against Bill and Hillary.
The reasoning behind Dole's turnabout can undoubtedly be traced to a desire 
o
appeal to the "middle".  This is a very poorly thought-out justification for
needlessly alienating a mass of highly-motivated voters who would otherwise 
have
cast their vote in favor of him.  Consider - how many votes did Dole gain by
this switch, versus how many it will cost him? That he and his campaign can 
o
blithely ignore the hard lessons of recent
history - the Bush campaign and the '94 Congressional turnover to which Bill
Clinton himself attributed the gunowner vote - is astonishing.
On a state-by-state (and sometimes, even national) basis since 1991, 
unowners
have made tremendous leaps forward.  For this we owe incalculable gratitude 
to a
revitalized National Rifle Association and equally, to gunowners' newfound
commitment to work hard in the political arena.  Right-to-carry legislation,
range protection laws, firearms pre-emption, and now a privately held (thus,
safe from the ravening anti-gunners in Congress) Civilian Marksmanship 
rogram
and other such bold initiatives are sweeping the land.  And comes now the
titular head of the Republican Party who sees this pro-freedom activism 
gelling
into
legislation - and he places himself squarely in the ranks of the other gun
grabbers.
I will be voting for Libertarian Harry Browne for President this year, and I
will work to elect pro-gun Democrats and Republicans in other races.  If we 
can
elect a veto-proof Congress, it won't much matter who the President is, 
xcept
for the matter of judicial appointments.  Hopefully, however, Clinton will be 
in
leg irons before too much longer and we won't even have to worry about that..
I really thought that the Republican Party had gotten the message with Bush, 
and
then certainly with the '94 elections.  But evidently, the national leaders 
f
the party have no clue about how serious we gunowners are about our rights.  
If
we can get a pro-gun, veto-proof Congress elected and let Dole go down to
defeat, why - maybe the third time's the charm.
Meanwhile, Bob Dole?
Bob Dole can kiss my AR-15.
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------------------- Chairman ------------------------------------------
Mike Dugger                                 When in doubt, vote 'em out
Armed and SAFE!                   Legalize Freedom - ELECT Libertarians
----------- Arizona Libertarian Party ---------------------------------
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